Mama Planted the Seeds
Eddie Rickenbacker was a great man. He was a hero of two wars, a pioneer of aviation, and a highly successful businessman. He seemed blessed with boundless energy and an ingrained optimism. He endured suffering and faced death more than once. After a disastrous airline crash he literally willed himself back from death, which he described as, “the sweetest, tenderest, most sensuous sensation. Death comes disguised as a sympathetic friend. It is easy to die. You have to fight to live.”397 He fought this fight more than most men.
The source of this man’s amazing strength of character was a deep religious belief that he acquired as a boy and strengthened during his eventful life:
Never, even during my most mischievous escapades, had I lost faith in God. Mama had planted the seeds of religion too deeply in all of us for that. All through my childhood there was a warm, continuing family ritual. After supper… Mother would ask one of us to bring in the Bible… [She] would open it and begin to read. Her favorite passages were the Sermon on the Mount and the 23rd Psalm, and they are the ones I remember best. She would often stop reading to discuss the meanings behind the Scriptures and how we could apply the principles of Christianity to everyday life.
It was my mother who taught us to pray… But formal prayer was only the beginning. Mama taught us that the Lord above was a friendly God, a Presence who was interested in our problems and sympathetic to them. Thanks to her influence, I have always talked to God in my prayers… full of confidence that He listens and responds.398
This passage presents a perfect prescription for the spiritual development of children. A warm and secure family atmosphere provides the foundation. Reading Scripture together teaches biblical knowledge, and also serves to bring the family closer together. Finally, the parent who explains the power of prayer and leads his or her children by example into a deeper appreciation of it gives them a lifelong resource and path to their own relationship with God. Scripture, prayer, and family form a powerful basis for spiritual growth.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
—2 Timothy 3:14–15